Wine and Canadian hospitality in Kelowna

To tell my next story, I need to give you some background information. So please bear with me! :) At the beginning of my journey in Krakow, I met a very nice Canadian woman named Dara-Lynn, who was traveling through Eastern Europe for several months with her dog Tango. We had a good conversation back then, and she told me about the Canadian wineries in British Columbia, including those near her hometown of Kelowna. I had never heard of wine being produced in Canada before, so I decided to visit the wine region after our conversation. Interestingly, during my further travels in Costa Rica, I met a Canadian sommelier from British Columbia and other Canadians who also told me about it.

When it came time to plan my route through Canada, I contacted Dara-Lynn to ask for recommendations in the region. To my surprise, she invited me to stay with her in Kelowna, which I gladly accepted. So after two days in Vancouver, I boarded a bus to Kelowna to meet this travel acquaintance again after almost a year.

The journey to Kelowna alone was a fantastic experience. The landscape of mountains and forests looked just like what I had seen in a photo book about Canada that my grandfather had given me - only even more impressive, of course. I even saw some deer and two female elk! Just before Kelowna, I had a beautiful view of Okanagan Lake, above which two rainbows appeared in the sky.

Kelowna itself was much bigger than I had imagined. The bus took about half an hour to travel from one end of the city to the other. My host picked me up at the bus station and took great care of me throughout my stay. She took a lot of time for me in the following days, went on excursions with me, and introduced me to a good friend and her family. On the first evening, we went out to dinner with her parents because it was her father's birthday, and on my last evening, her grandmother invited us for dinner (where I learned a lot about jade mining in Canada and met a neighbor of hers who was originally from Friedberg!). I felt so welcome and almost like part of the family! I can only be grateful for such hospitality and hope to repay them someday.

Of course, visits to the wineries were a must, so we visited at least twelve wineries in three days, and I did a wine tasting at least eight of them... In most wineries, you can do a wine tasting without an appointment for five Canadian dollars (with usually five wines), and if you decide to buy a bottle, the five dollars will be deducted from the purchase price. Among the wineries, there was also a meadery, and on the way, we stopped at a lavender farm.

Among the wineries, there were some exceptional ones, and during guided tours and conversations during the tastings, I learned a lot about the philosophy or the art of winemaking. Here are some of my favorites:

Arrow Leaf: A winery in Lake Country, north of Kelowna. Personally, this is where I liked the wine the best. From the tasting room, you have a wonderful view of the vineyards and the lake. In the outdoor area, you can bring your own picnic and enjoy the wine in peace.

Blind Tiger: Another winery in Lake Country that produces organic wine. The winery is located in the middle of vineyards, the tasting room is very quaint, and the winemaker is very nice. The name comes from the time of prohibition when local establishments put tiger or pig figurines in their shop windows that either wore blindfolds or not to indicate to customers whether the place was under police surveillance or not.

Frequency Winery: This winery has a very special way of making their wine. There is a recording studio in the tasting room where local bands can record music for free. The winemakers are interested in how the frequencies of the music affect the wine, so they constantly play the same music to the wine barrels over a long period of time. This is supposed to have an effect on the sediment and water molecules in the wine. Although I couldn't taste the effect of the music, the concept is still fascinating, and the winery is definitely worth a visit.

In addition to the wine tastings, we went biking on an old railway track in Mayra Canyon and swimming in the lake (although I was actually the only one who swam! The water was already much colder than what I was used to from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean). So the days in and around Kelowna passed by in a flash, and soon it was time to say goodbye to Dara-Lynn and Tango and make my way to Vancouver, from where I would continue to Vancouver Island.